I realized today that I’ve commented on Global Agenda abandoning the subscription fee on forums and news sites but I haven’t written about it on the blog.  Time to correct this oversight.   I called it back in 2009 and in January of this year when I wrote about Global Agenda.  Having played back in Alpha and during their beta events it was always clear to me that GA’s biggest problem was that it fell in the middle of two identities and was never able to truly establish itself as a MMO or Action shooter.

Global Agenda always felt like it was closer to Team Fortress 2, Diablo, or Modern Warfare than any MMO.  That’s not a bad thing and not something to get defensive over, unless you’re banking on your game being marketed successfully as a MMO to attract the constant subscriber-base that a game like WoW sees.  What I’ve been advocating from the time GA released was for the developers to realize that their game would be far more successful if it were marketed and a few slight design changes were made so that it established a clear identity on the action/shooter side of the line.

Now that there is no more subscription fee or attempt to market the game with benefits for subscribers or any of that silliness I’m hoping that the devs will turn it towards being more of a shooter with progression elements.  I still think the persistent elements like talent trees and upgrades are a good idea.  Just look at the shooter market these days and it’s clear that whether or not they’re good for the game that they’re popular as ever.  It’s been talked about a lot in my gaming circle that GA should be a Tribes meets Planetside meets TF2 style game.  The Planetside angle is probably a lost cause and would require way more changes to the game’s design than possible at this point, but I think accomplishing Tribes with persistent elements is totally an doable.

Good decision to abandon the subscription model.  Now totally disown any attempt at convincing people that this is a MMO, stick with what you’ve clearly done well (shooter elements with some quick battles and team play), take a few more steps towards providing bigger maps and some good vehicles and a Starsiege Tribes feel and even I will buy the game.  It’s definitely not too late to recover and make a game that people will talk about.

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